Final Fantasy VII The Turk
by UglyLikeMe
Summary: During the events of FF7, Shin-Ra is focused on the hunt for Sephiroth, but when they suspect a deep-cover operative of AVALANCHE has unknown intentions, they send one of their own Turks to follow him.
1. Chapter 1

Final Fantasy VII: The Turk

The detonation sequence had been set. Soon, the support pillar for Sector 7 would come crashing down upon its denizens and, more importantly, the terrorist group AVALANCHE. As he pushed himself back up to his feet, Cross wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his Turk jacket. Now, he could turn his attention to the gunfire happening below his platform at the top of the pillar, unsheathing his twin kodachi from behind his back and turning to meet his oncoming enemy.

Just as he reached the final step, the man with the gun-arm fixes his sights on Cross, and raises the barrel to meet his target, as the slightly heftier man that follows suddenly stops in his tracks, apparently not expecting any more opposition. "No need for any more fightin' here, Turk. We got through all them Shin-Ra nobodies down below, so it's just you and us." He certainly had a point, Cross thought. Reno should have been here long before now with the detonation code, but it was no surprise he was running late as usual.

"Yeah, come on man! We've lost friends, and so have you! Biggs! Jessie! They're dying down there right now, so why don't you give it up so that we can all go home with what little we have left!" The pudgier man had, surprisingly interjected. Cross had thought he was frozen in his tracks from fear before such an outburst, but now he didn't now which surprised him more: the sudden outburst, or the brash assumption the two had that they were any match for him.

"Friends?" Cross replied, as he started to circle the two, who mirrored his movement. "They've all died for the better cause. It's what they signed up for. To be honest though, I'm surprised you made it through them so easily. That must make you AVALANCHE then, right?"

"That's right, fool! Don't you forget it either!", responded the man with the gun-arm, quite proudly.

"Just as I thought. Is this all of you then? I'm disappointed, from the reports I had thought you were some highly regimented organization, dedicated to your struggle, however twisted it is. Now I see you're just a bunch of bottom feeders, a rag-tag group of common criminals, mirror images of the horrible atrocities you have already committed."

"Bottom-feeders?! Just who do you think you talkin' to, huh?! We're not the criminals, it's Shin-Ra! We're fightin' to save the planet, all Shin-Ra has done is & it up!"

"By taking out industrial areas, reactors, causing collateral damage with each and every bombing? Putting thousands of people out of work, thousands of more at risk? You can try to believe whatever you want to help yourself to sleep at night, but it doesn't matter, because the bombing of the Sector 7 pillar is going to be your last."

"Bombing? What are you talking about?"

"It was only going to be a matter of time anyway. If we let you go on, you'll take out all the reactors, and then, all the plates in Midgar. At least this way we can control it, and stop you in your tracks. A heavy price to pay, but in the end it's for the best. AVALANCHE ends with Sector 7." The gun-arm man's hefty companion was shaking now, jerking his head back and forth as he listened to Cross, until he could take anymore.

"You're gonna blame this on us! No, you're wrong! We'd never do anything like that, only Shin-Ra would! Well, it doesn't matter, BECAUSE I WON'T LET YOU DO IT!"

"Wedge, no man! Stay back!", the gun-arm man yelled, but his partner refused to listen as he charged towards Cross, mad with rage. The Turk curled his lip at the effort and glanced over his shoulder to the rail behind him before looking back towards his charging enemy. Wedge charged faster and faster towards Cross until, before he could react, the Turk side-stepped around him, planting a foot square in his back and causing him to disappear over the edge of the platform.

The ease of defeating this first adversary was quickly overwhelmed by the hail of gunfire that was now coming towards him, as he turned to see the man with the gun-arm blasting furiously towards him. Reacting quickly, he deflected a few shots with his kodachis before dodging behind the giant pillar supporting the platform and plate above. He knew he had done well to dispatch one of them as quickly as he had, but even so, the other that remained was obviously the more formidable of the two.

As the gun-arm man circled around the pillar to bring Cross back into his sights, the Turk acted fast, leaping high up onto the pillar and clinging onto it's rough, aged surface with the tips of his kodachis and soles of his boots. A helicopter chopped through the air in the distance, and Cross's hopes were heightened, he needed only fend off this attacker a little while longer before back-up would arrive. The gun-arm man had made his way around the pillar to Cross's previous position, but the Turk was above him now, a fact he did not realize. Utilizing the element of surprise, the Turk leapt from his perch now, down towards his adversary, but the gun-arm man was quicker than he realized, noticing Cross just in time to deflect his attacks with the hard metal of his grafted weapon.

Cross pressed the attack, slicing and stabbing with his kodachis, strikes that were blocked and dodged, then blocked and dodged again by the man with the gun-arm. Attacking like a man possessed, the Turk knew he couldn't let the gun-arm man get any kind of distance from him, or else he would find himself target practice yet again. His feverish strikes drew sparks with each deflection by the gun-arm, the clank of metal against metal almost rendering the enclosing helicopter inaudible. As Cross lunged towards the gun-arm man, he lost his footing on the metal grating of the platform and fell to his knees. Below the platform, he spotted two more figures approaching up the massive circling staircase beneath him, a spiky-haired warrior with a giant sword, and a beautiful long-haired vixen. Despair practically overwhelmed him as he picked himself back up to his feet and turned to see the barrel of the gun-arm staring right back at him. Before he could think, shots rang out, and bullets riddled through his body, sending him stumbling back and falling over the railing of the platform. He watched the platform sailing up and away from him before he sank deep into darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"So that's how it's being explained?"

"Of course, it was the rampage through the upper levels of the building, not to mention a huge chase clear across Midgar on the freeway that helped the case against AVALANCHE." Cross's eyes cracked slightly open, allowing the bright light to rush into his pupils, trading a pitch black vision for a complete white one. He could barely move his limbs, and no sound escaped from his throat as he awakened from a very long sleep. As he tried to regain his senses, he did all he could for now, and listened.

"AVALANCHE seems like a pretty good scape-goat for everything. After the Sector 7 incident, I don't think anyone will doubt that they would be capable of anything, even the assassination of the president."

"….sin…sination?" Cross couldn't believe what he was hearing. The Shin-Ra HQ had been breached, and the president had been assassinated, all while he had been asleep. He wondered how long he had slept, how much he had missed, how many other things had changed. The sound had barely escaped from his lips, but it startled the two Shin-Ra Guards carrying on their conversation in the doorway of his room. Quickly, they stood at attention, saluting the recovering Turk.

"Welcome back, sir! We were wondering when you would come to!" Quickly coming back to reality, the Turk raised himself off the bed a bit with his elbows before grimacing in pain over the many bullet wounds that were still healing on his body. More carefully now he shifted his feet off the bed and pulled himself into a sitting position, slowly sinking into as much comfort as he could afford as he looked up at the two Shin-Ra guards.

"How long have I been out?"

"I'm sorry sir, but we're not exactly privy to that kind of information, we've just been assigned to guard you because of the security breach."

"Yeah, yeah, they don't tell you anything, I get it." The statement hit the two guards like a stone thrown at their chest. Before they could recollect their composure, a beautiful young doctor had come strolling gracefully into the room, looking over the two guards quizzically before flashing a smile to the Turk still grimacing from his wounds.

"Nice to see you finally awake, its been a few days. You two, go notify his department. There's a lot you missed, Cross."

"I already heard a few things that I have questions about, listening to those two." The two guards gulped, having thought the Turk wasn't able to hear their conversation, they now feared for their jobs as they spun on their heels and darted out the door to their new assignment. Simply shaking her head, the doctor turned her attention back to Cross, gently pushing him on the shoulder until he was laying flat on his back yet again. "What the hell? I haven't been asleep long enough?"

"Stop it, you know I have to check your wounds. I swear, you Turks would die from infection and blood loss if company policy didn't enforce these routines…" She lifted his bandages just high enough to catch a peek at the stitches underneath them, each one of her motions eliciting another grimace from him.

"So are you really going to keep me in suspense, doctor?"

"Suspense? They seem to be healing fine, but the fact that you've even woken up should tell you you're going to live." Cross raised his head high enough so that she could see the eyebrow he was trying to raise as well, a feat that is much harder than he thought.

"I'm talking about what's happened around here, how long I've been out." She met eyes with him now, taken aback a bit, before clambering for a reply.

"Uh, well, company policy is that I don't discuss--"

"I won't tell if you won't." She thought that would be enough to dissuade him from that conversation, as much as she knew him. It was obvious that he would not let up on getting some information about the recent events as soon as they could be offered to him.

"Well…it's odd. I don't know the specifics, and everything has been so hectic around here I don't even know where to begin--"

"Let's just start with why I'm alive right now. I fell from the top on the pillar, I was riddled with bullets, Reno didn't get there in time, but here I am." She just shook her head before he had even finished his sentence, as if physically replying to each part of it.

"I don't know…I don't know why you're alive, you came in here and they told me exactly what you're telling me now. Even if Reno had gotten there right after you fell, with the kind of injuries you should have sustained, you wouldn't have even made it here in time. But--" She looked distant now, quizzically running a forefinger across her lips as even she contemplated the meaning of her words. "But you didn't have those injuries. You should have suffered from broken bones and internal bleeding, just from the fall, let alone your vital organs ruptured from the bullet wounds, you…you should have been dead. But when we examined you, what we found was that all your wounds were practically superficial, just minor flesh wounds. That's all I know, I just figure it was a miracle, you got really lucky."

His wounds didn't make him feel lucky, and he still couldn't understand why he was still alive, luck or not. He found himself lost in his thoughts, before abruptly being reminded of his present state by the sharp pinch of a needle in his arm. "OW! Is this all really necessary?"

"Big baby. You never did like being in here, but maybe you should learn to not get hurt as often." Before he could muster up a cutting retort, a glimpse of bright red hair entering the room demanded his attention. He met eyes with Reno, who shook his head back at Cross, leaning against the door with a smirk on his face.

"Hey, target practice. How's it feel to have a few more holes in you?" Cross couldn't help but reply with a grin. By all accounts, it was Reno's fault he was in this condition, but something about the man's personality always brought out the best in him. "C'mon, you gonna lie in here and nap some more, or are you gonna get back on the job like all the rest of us?"

"Sure, I bet all the higher-ups would like something to actually get done for a change. How about it, doctor?" The doctor simply let out a sigh, look into Cross's eyes, knowing there was only one answer he would accept.

"You should be fine for now, just try to take it easy. You too, Reno, you weren't as badly injured, but don't overstress yourself either." Cross had already slipped his shirt back on and started buttoning it up before the verdict was rendered. He pushed himself up off the bed and grabbed his Turks jacket with one arm, pushing Reno out the door with the other as he sensed an inappropriate reply to the doctor's statement coming quickly. The two walked the halls of Shin-Ra HQ, casually making their way towards their department.

"So what's been happening while I've been out, Reno?" Cross had no pre-occupation when asking Reno about anything that might be hush-hush. The Turks realized long ago that Reno likes to talk, so the general consensus was not to give him any information that really needed to be kept secret.

"Oh man, what hasn't happened? First off, the President is dead. Rufus has already taken over, and the transition wasn't really that bad at all. In fact, I think I lot of people are happy that Rufus is in charge now, hell, Midgar probably thinks AVALANCHE did them a favor." He kind of regretted asking, it all sounded like politics to him. Cross didn't care who was in charge, as long as he was still getting orders from Shin-Ra, but he decided to entertain the conversation anyhow.

"Yeah, killed by AVALANCHE then, was he?"

"That's what they're telling people, but the truth is, that can't be confirmed, in fact, we have evidence that kind of clears them." Cross's ears perked at this comment. "But sorry, buddy, I'm all for conversation, but that's definitely on a need-to-know." That was certainly against his usual nature, Cross figured. "They were here though, yeah, they breached security, can you believe that? I would have taken them out, but I was already pretty exhausted from the fight at the pillar." Now the conversation was coming to his interest.

"Fight at the pillar?"

"Oh yeah, man! Wow, you should have been there, I totally slipped in and got the code in, right? Well after that I was surrounded by like, 10 of--" Cross stopped in his tracks, putting a hand in Reno's chest, and looking him dead in the eye.

"I WAS there, buddy! I initiated the sequence, remember? You were late, and I was outnumbered and overwhelmed!" The tone in his voice was sharp, but still quiet enough so as not to draw attention. Reno looked a little uneasily back into Cross's gaze as he let out an uncomfortable chuckle, slowly pushing his hand away.

"Hey, I got orders, top priority, had to make a quick stop before I got there. In fact, you should be thanking me, it's probably what saved your life." Cross blinked, relaxing his stance to give Reno some more room. "I don't blame you for being angry, but let me tell ya, it was crazy, man! Let's stop at the rec room and grab a bite so I can get it all out, right?"

After spotting Reno for a few snack cakes and a soda, the two sat down at a booth near the back, Reno spilling his bounty out onto the table and practically eating through the plastic wrapping. Cross shook his head, watching Reno dig into an overly chocolaty treat. "Come on, Reno, what happened in Sector 7?" Reno looked back at him as if just now remembering the whole thing. He quickly downed a bit of his soda and swallowed the large chunk of cake still in his mouth.

"Yeah, right. So, there I am in the helicopter, and I got the pillar right in my sight, heck, I can see gunfire coming from the stairwell. I didn't see any at the top, so I figured they hadn't made it that far, so I'm like 'All right, I'm right on time!' But then, I get a call over the radio, telling me to divert from my objective. At first I'm like 'Yeah, probably an AVALANCHE trick.' until I realize that it's Tseng on the other end! So I'm wondering if we're scrapping the mission now or something, but he just tells me to stop over at the Ancient's house to pick him and the Ancient herself up! Yeah, he nabbed the Ancient right then, can you believe that?"

"The Ancient?" Cross strained to remember what she had looked like. He had only went with Tseng once, just after he had joined the Turks, to meet the Ancient. She must have been a bit older now, just a little younger than he was. Must be very beautiful now, he thought, she was stunning then. Looking back up to Reno, he was nodding his head, his cheeks stuffed with cakes, making him look like a puffer-fish.

"Mmm! Yeah." Reno swallowed hard, almost choking on what was left in his mouth. "So I pick them up, right? Now we take off back toward the pillar, and THAT'S when I see gunfire going off at the top of the pillar. Believe me, buddy, my heart sank in my chest, I knew you had to be up there alone, so I was pushing full throttle man, I'm talkin' pedal to the metal now, but I guess it was no good, I saw you fall from the pillar just before we got there. I was wrecked, man." He didn't appear to be very distraught, Cross thought. Though, he chalked it up to the fact that he was indeed still alive, sitting in front of him.

"So why am I still here? Company policy dictates you don't deviate from the objective. You wouldn't have had very much time to get out of Sector 7, even in a chopper. By all accounts, you shouldn't have came and gotten me." Reno almost spit out his beverage as he was gulping it down.

"Hey, you bitter about still being alive, buddy? Relax, I'm getting there. So now, I flip on auto-pilot and jump out the chopper, right? I'm just supposed to input the code and get back on real quick, but oh no, nobody does that to one of my buddies, I took them on after I got the mission done, like I said, there must've been 10--"

"Yeah, I only counted two more coming up the stairs before I fell." Reno gulped, chuckling nervously again.

"Oh, well, okay, so it was just 3 of them, but hey, I was still out-numbered and out-gunned! Man, you just like to ruin a guy's story, don't you? No more interruptions now, Cross. So I'm still taking them all on, right, and I'm doing pretty good, until Tseng orders me to fall back. They got some cheap shots in as I was getting away, which is why I ended up in here with you, but anyway, Tseng still has the Ancient so she's using her as leverage against them, so they don't start shootin' the chopper down. Pretty clever, I thought, but I don't know how the Ancient and AVALANCHE were connected. Pretty weird coincidence, if you ask me! So, now we're takin' off, mission accomplished, until Tseng orders me to go down and pick you up, good thing he did, right? We get you aboard and, no offense, but you were just a mess man, heck, I think you actually were dead."

He could hardly believe that he could have died, or was dead. Trying to wrap his mind around a concept like that was hopeless, so he focused more on how he had survived. It was as if Reno had read his mind. "And this is where it gets weird! I'm thinking you were a goner, but Tseng just blurts out 'Help him.' I thought he was talkin' to me at first, but then I realize he's talkin' to the Ancient, like she's a doctor or something. She definitely wasn't no doctor, she started doing something I've never seen anything do, not even materia. That's gotta be what really freaked me out, I mean, if she had used some materia, fine, whatever, maybe it's some I ain't never seen before, who knows? But she didn't, the only materia she had was this ugly, useless looking one tied up in her hair. Anyway, after she was done, you were breathin' and hey, it all works out in the end, right?"

"I guess so. Where is she now?"

"The Ancient? That's what they came--" Reno was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. He snatched in from inside his jacket and flipped in open in one smooth motion "Reno here. Yeah, he's here too. Right, I'll do that. Okay, I'll tell him. So what's happening, Shin-Ra trying to cut down on the phone charges? He has one too, y'know-- eh, hello? Huh…they hung up." Cross figured he would've done the same, Reno doesn't really quit once he starts on the attack. "All right, I gotta take care of some things, and they want you to report to Tseng's office ASAP."

Reno scooped up the remains of his snack, rolling them into a ball before trying to loft them into a trash can clear across the room, and failing by a wide margin. He shrugged it off as he pushed himself up. "Well, I'll catch you later, Cross. Who knows? Maybe they'll put us on something together again soon."

"Yeah." Cross slowly got to his feet as well, minding his wounds. "Take it easy, Reno." Reno smirked and gave a sly gesture before strutting out of the Rec Room and out of sight. He took a moment to himself to contemplate what just happened before taking off towards Tseng's office. Hopefully, he thought, he could get some work to take his mind off everything weird that has been happening.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Cross made his way through security and came upon a black, glass door. The low hum of a buzzer pierced the sound of his footsteps. "Voice identifiction, please."

"Cross, Turks Division."

"Voice print recognized, appointment for Cross, Turks Division, designated time: 15 minutes. 1 file recognized for Cross, Turks Division." The whirr of machinery came from within a metallic slot next to the door way before a manila folder slowly emerged from within. "Retrieve file, please." Cross pulled the file, jerking it back and forth a bit to properly get it out, something he was used to doing with these types on machines. "The Shin-Ra Electric Power Company would like to remind you to respect company policy while alone inside high security sections of the building. Thank you very much."

Cross nodded, finding the whole process condescending after having to deal with it all too often. As the black glass door slid open, he walked into the office of Tseng to find him out, just as he had suspected. Thankfully, such mechanized forms of security weren't necessary unless briefing had to be done from different locations. He stepped up to Tseng's stainless steel desk and pushed the little red button that was situated on a small box just on the edge of it. Taking a seat, he listened to a dial tone and subsequent ringing before the large view screen behind Tseng's desk popped on, revealing the handsome, long haired head of the Turks division, Tseng.

"Glad to have you back, Cross, how are your wounds?"

"Fine, sir."

"I've gotten a notification suggesting that you take a short amount of leave to recover properly."

"Not necessary, I'm ready for anything, sir." Tseng chuckled a bit, nodding in approval.

"Good, fortunately I have a fairly simple assignment for you, though, as usual, complexity does not dictate difficulty. Please open the file I've left for you." Cross obliged, flipping open the manila folder to read 'Urban Development Conflict - AVALANCHE' on the front page. "It's time you were properly briefed on the terrorist group known as AVALANCHE, as it will be necessary information on your next assignment, feel free to follow along at your discretion with the information contained in that file, as I will be try to be as brief as possible.

"This information was compiled by Shin-Ra spies in Sector 7 before its collapse. AVALANCHE is estimated to have contained 9 members, 3 of them, Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge, are believed dead, killed during the conflict at the Sector 7 pillar." Cross nodded, remembering the name of the man he had sent over the railing, Wedge. "The other six are still active and believed to all be on assignment, assignments that have taken them outside the walls of Midgar. Normally, this wouldn't be our jurisdiction, but it's already been confirmed with relative certainty that these assignments interfere with Shin-Ra interest. Barret Wallace is believed to be the leader of the operation, he is highly recognizable due to the large gun grafted onto his arm, I believe you've had a run-in with him. Next is Tifa Lockhart, Wallace's suspected second-in-command. She is a skilled hand-to-hand fighter, utilizing the Zangan style of martial arts, and has superior leadership skills as well, not to mention, of course, striking beauty.

"The third member is Cloud Strife. He is reported to be Ex-SOLDIER, First Class, though inspection into his files have been tagged as highly classified, even we can't access them, which leads us to believe this information is entirely accurate. It should go without saying what skills he may possess, of course. Next, is Aerith Gainsborough, a relatively new member, Aerith is supposed to be the last surviving Ancient left in the world, I believe you've met her on occasion. Her role in the group may be due to her ancestry, though she is suspected to possess unusual abilities." Cross looked at the picture provided within the file, remembering all he facial features. He wondered what her unusual abilities might be, and knew that, least among them, was the ability to save lives. "Let's continue.

"An experiment being tested by Professor Hojo appears to have joined the group as well, though he is suspected to be the most recent member. There is no further information at this time, except for his code name: Red XIII. That brings us to the final suspected member of AVALANCHE, the most mysterious of all." Cross flipped to the next file and studied the picture. A red, short-haired young man who stood tall. "His name is 'Johnny', surname not available at this time. During observation, he appeared to keep his distance from the other members of the group, rarely interacting with any of them, except for a few visits to their suspected hideout. In actuality, he wasn't linked to the group until it was found out only he and the other suspected member of AVALANCHE were those that made it out of Sector 7. The low-key nature of his escape, combined with sightings of him near the 'Honey-Bee Inn' during one of President Shin-Ra's 'visits' gives us enough reason to believe that he may be a deep-cover operative for the group, and is the only one traveling alone.

"Johnny will be your assignment. You will track and follow him for observation with the utmost discretion. AVALANCHE is quite aware of our profiling of most of their members, but it's suspected that they still believe Johnny's cover has not yet been blown. We're not sure what his intentions are, Cross, and it's your job to find out. He's last been sighted in Kalm and is suspected to be heading for Junon. The rest of the information you may need is located within that file. That is the end of this briefing, are there any questions." Cross looked at the file, straining his mind for a bit, before looking up at Tseng with a passionate look in his eyes.

"Sir, if we had spies monitoring and observing AVALANCHE, gaining intel…why Sector 7 then? Couldn't they be taken out before that, perhaps discretely? If we knew these things about them, why did we have to wipe out an entire sector of the city?!" Cross's tone grew sharp, but in that special way about it he had to make it seem passionate, rather than aggressive. Tseng lowered his head, nodding.

"An operation could have been mounted, it's true. However, the skills of the AVALANCHE members were unknown, but suspected to be superior to any operatives we may have sent them. Sending in SOLDIER was an option at one point, but it was believed that when the Ex-SOLDIER, Cloud, had joined AVALANCHE, the resulting carnage and publicity from such a conflict would be too damaging to the company's reputation. To be honest, I don't make the decisions when it comes to how to go about dealing with a threat like AVALANCHE, but I do believe that if it could have been handled any other way, it would have."

Cross sat for a moment in thought, sighing and nodding his head. He didn't always agree with the company, but in the end he knew all the good things that Shin-Ra had done for him and his family in the past, not to mention the rest of the world. Looking back up to Tseng on the view screen, he stood up and saluted. "Thank you, sir. Assignment understood, track and observe subject 'Johnny', and discover his role within AVALANCHE."

"Very good, Cross. Your assignment starts in Kalm."


End file.
